LSU AgCenter nutrition education programs have always aimed to support the health and well-being of Louisianans. Helping residents eat healthier, be more physically active and maintain a healthy weight are important parts of disease prevention. Building healthy, thriving communities across Louisiana can support reduced healthcare costs, improved workforce productivity and an enhanced quality of life for everyone in our state.

For this vision of a thriving Louisiana to become a reality, we need to make healthy choices easy for our residents. We do this through our Healthy Communities initiative, which uses community-driven approaches to improve places where people eat, shop, live, work, learn, pray and play.

With the AgCenter’s adoption of new, innovative, community-based approaches over the last 10 years, we recognized the need to change our name from Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) to Nutrition and Community Health (NCH) to more accurately reflect the work that we are doing across the state. Now, all four AgCenter NCH programs incorporate Healthy Communities approaches that aim to make it easier for our clients to use the knowledge they gain in our nutrition lessons.

Each of these AgCenter NCH programs offers unique resources and opportunities in each region of the state:

• High Obesity Program (HOP) – HOP's goal is to improve access to healthier foods and safe places for physical activity. The program is embedded in 10 primarily rural parishes in which 40% or more of adults are classified as obese.
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) – SNAP-Ed is a research-based program that helps individuals and families in 40 parishes maximize their SNAP benefits. The program teaches healthy shopping and cooking and promotes physical activity through nutrition education, social marketing, and community food and physical activity improvements.
• Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) – EFNEP is a research-based nutrition education program for limited-resource families and youth that helps participants gain skills to improve diets and physical activity levels, handle foods safely and maximize family food dollar budgeting and management. The program is available in nine parishes.
• Flavors of Health (FoH) – This statewide LSU AgCenter community nutrition and health education program was designed to motivate and empower Louisianans to make healthy food and fitness choices to prevent chronic disease.
• Consumer Food Safety – This program includes curricula development and supplementary resources to ensure participants are well-informed and capable of implementing safe food practices.

Food and community are integral parts of our culture in Louisiana. Our NCH team is striving to make health a part of our culture as well. If you would like to learn more or get involved, visit www.LSUAgCenter.com/FoodAndHealth.

Gina E. Eubanks is an AgCenter associate vice president and the Nutrition and Community Health program leader.

This article appears in the winter 2025 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.

Gina E. Eubanks